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Careless People

by Maureen Farrell

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy -- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness." – F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

When George W. Bush and other Texas Rangers owners wanted land for a new $2 million baseball stadium, they bullied Arlington officials into condemning and confiscating private property. As one of the lawsuits filed by landowners put it, "A group of wealthy and influential people threatened and traded their way into an unprecedented takeover of government power and private property in an awesome display of greed and avarice."

In 1992, Stephen Pizzo researched George W. Bush’s Harken escapade alongside other shady moneymaking schemes. Concerned with "well-to-do white boys who trade on family connections, welsh on loans, run with con men, and leave financial ruin in their wake as they line their own pockets," he asked questions about the Bush boys’ questionable values. "What about grown men, with access to the most powerful public office in the land, who participate in scandal but show no remorse for any of it -- and who take no responsibility for the consequences of their own actions?," he wondered.

After the Gulf War, Neil Bush, Marvin Bush and James Baker, who represented Enron at the time, struck up some sweet deals postwar deals. "Is there any reason American companies shouldn't profit from the war in Kuwait?" an Enron executive asked journalist Seymour Hersh.

For those who haven’t been living in a cave for the past three years, there’s a pattern of careless disregard that’s not only a hallmark of this administration, but extends to the cronies they serve.

Today, as Halliburton, the Carlyle Group and other Bush buddies rake in huge profits from war, it’s difficult not to think of the Great Gatsby’s Tom and Daisy, smashing things and retreating into their vast money and carelessness. The latest report that a new company comprised of "businessmen associated with President Bush, his family and his administration" has been formed, as the AP reports, to "take advantage of business opportunities in Iraq" comes as no surprise, especially since George Bush Sr. is working with the nation’s 11th largest defense contractor, even as his son wages perpetual war.

Profiting at others’ expense is perhaps one of the more disturbing features of this carelessness, but it’s not the only one. There’s also the careless way in which we went to war in the first place. Though Condoleezza Rice frequently appeared on TV to paint mushroom cloud scenarios, journalist John Pilger recently unearthed videotapes in which she and Colin Powell indicated that Saddam Hussein did not pose a threat. In Feb., 2001, for example, Colin Powell said Hussein had not "developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction" and was "unable to project conventional power against his neighbors." Powell carelessly reported otherwise at the UN.

Then, of course, there is the careless doctrine of preemption. Now that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has said his country may also attack any other nation preemptively, the proverbial genie has been let out of proliferation bottle. People warned that this would happen, but like Gatsby’s Tom and Daisy, Bush threw caution to the wind. Moreover, our own preemptive endeavor, embarked upon absent a real threat, has reaped serious repercussions for those not fortunate enough to be on the moneymaking side of the bargain. Not only have tens of thousand of lives been destroyed (and will most likely continue to be destroyed thanks to depleted uranium munitions), but there are unforeseen consequences, including, for the first time, a drug problem in Baghdad.

"A boom in supply of hallucinogenic tablets has been coupled with the release of tens of thousands of criminals from prison before the US-led invasion," the BBC recently reported. And the security vacuum left after Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled not only brought about massive looting and carjackings, but there are now highly organized kidnapping rings, suggesting that resistance to the occupation isn’t the only major problem in postwar Iraq.

And, of course, US soldiers are also paying dearly for other people’s carelessness. Promised that "the road home is through Baghdad" many are genuinely surprised and deflated that they are still in Iraq. It seems that despite the arrogant dismissal of more realistic estimates, at least five times the originally proposed 30,000 troops are needed to occupy the country -- making for an extended and unhappy group of soldiers. "Morale among my son-in-law's unit, already low, has plummeted even further," one woman wrote the Chicago Tribune. "When he was first deployed, he was apprehensive but willing, as he said, ‘to serve my country.’ He no longer believes what he is doing is serving his country in any way." Saying that these soldiers feel that they are seen as "expendable bodies" by the Bush administration, she validated what others have already expressed. "One weekend a month, MY ASS," a sign read on a truck in Iraq -– advertising the opinion of reservists stationed there.

All of this comes in the wake of loose talk of cakewalks and flowers and liberation joy. Why isn’t Iraq’s oil paying for this postwar party as promised? And where in the world is Richard Perle and the other careless folks who scoffed at those who rightly disbelieved?

But even before preemption, the Bush cartel was full of Gatsby-type carelessness. Inquiries were stonewalled, terrorist warnings were ignored and Sept. 11 victims’ families were left begging in the wake. "They don't have any excuse because the information was in their lap, and they didn't do anything to prevent it," Sen. Richard Shelby said. "I don't believe any longer that it's a matter of connecting the dots. I think they had a veritable blueprint, and we want to know why they didn't act on it," Sen. Arlen Specter added.

And the carelessness continues. Though Bush said that his job is "to protect the American people," (before once again insinuating that Saddam was tied to 911) a report released by the Council on Foreign Relations' Independent Task Force on Emergency Responders indicated that Americans are unprotected to this day. "If the nation does not take immediate steps to better identify and address the urgent needs of emergency responders, the next terrorist incident could have an even more devastating impact than the Sept. 11 attacks," a report entitled "Emergency Responders: Drastically Underfunded, Dangerously Unprepared" warned.

The suggested $98.4 billion more in federal, state and local funding recommended to keep us safe at home is unlikely to be spent, especially given the additional $87 billion needed for Iraq. And when Sen. Robert Byrd and Reps. David Obey and Martin Sabo requested $125 million to hire 1,300 customs inspectors on America's borders, their amendment was rejected as being too costly. Meanwhile, President Bush requested $150 million in emergency funds for 5,350 border inspections personnel -– in Iraq.

Most recently, however, the outing of a CIA operative as a tool for revenge has underscored how seriously and dangerously careless this administration and the pundits who shill for them are. "If I hear another Republican operative suggesting that, well, [Valerie Plame] was just an analyst, fine. Let them go undercover. Let's put them overseas. Let's out them and see how they like it. They won't be able to stand the heat." former CIA analyst Larry Johnson said. "She will no longer be safe traveling overseas," ex-CIA officer Jim Marcinkowski explained. "I liken that to the knee-capping of an athlete."

The overall effect of this treasonous act is that other CIA agents working hard to track down weapons of mass destruction have also been rendered ineffective. Moreover, the leak has exposed a CIA front company, Brewster-Jennings & Associates, which puts additional people in jeopardy. "The inadvertent disclosure of the name of a business affiliated with the CIA underscores the potential damage to the agency and its operatives caused by the leak of Plame's identity," the Washington Post explained.

Yep, thanks to this administration’s carelessness, foreign intelligence agencies can now run Plame's name through their databases to see where she’s been and who she has associated with, not only putting her in danger, but anyone she’s worked with.

Looking back over the past three years, one can’t help but wonder how some can still support this president and his administration. Remember when Bush carelessly forgot to add nearly $300 million in humanitarian and reconstruction funds for Afghanistan in his budget proposal for 2003? What about the time he carelessly included information about uranium from Africa in his State of the Union address, even though he knew that information to be shady, at best? Aren’t the Republicans supposed to be the party of personal responsibility? What gives?

"Unfortunately, one of the things the Bush administration does least well is hold people accountable," conservative writer Charley Reese recently opined. "It seems that if you're loyal to the president, you can foul up to beat the band and still keep your job."

Unfortunately, the dead and maimed lie in the wake of this carelessness. As does our diminished nation.